The Coming Darkness
by WalamaCada
Summary: I know it's a cheesy title, but I couldn't think of anything else. This is a story loosely based off of and inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, featuring myself and Spud as main characters. Eventually, there will be more characters added from the Crewdom, and possibly even the Crew themselves. I have no idea where this story's going at the moment, so enjoy!
1. The Morning Sun

Cada made her way to the edge of the alley she had been staying in for the past hour or so and peered around the corner at a local bakery that had made itself popular over the past few years. Even from more than fifteen feet away, she could smell the heavenly scent of pastries, cakes, and other baked goods coming from the open windows, making her mouth water. The place had many customers at the moment, but there was one in particular that she was waiting for. He usually stopped at this bakery every Thursday morning, just after the sun came up, but today he was extremely late.

She turned to her companion, Spud, who was leaning up against the wall of the alley, clearly bored off his ass and tired and waiting. He had pulled out a small notebook and was currently reading information that was handwritten on a page about halfway through the notebook. The small book had been written by Cada, who had given it to Spud so he could become more familiar with the common language of Arnoth, the city the pair had made their home in.

Cada tapped Spud on the shoulder lightly, causing him to look up from his reading.

"I'm going to go in there. He hasn't showed up yet. I'm going to see what's up."

He nodded his head and put the notebook away in the pocket of his dark green cloak. "I'll come with you in case something goes wrong."

Cada nodded, and peeked around the corner one more time before turning back to her companion. "Wait a few minutes before you follow. And sit far enough away so that it doesn't look like we're together."

He nodded again, and as Cada walked out of the alley, Spud took her place so he could better watch the street and the bakery.

Cada made her way across the paved road, being careful to not jostle anyone too much as she went against the flow of traffic. The street wasn't too crowded, but it still saw its fair share of daily commuters.

The bakery, known as The Morning Sun, was fairly large, decorated with lots of bright, golden yellow tapestries and curtains to seem welcome and inviting. It had been constructed out of a dark, almost chocolate colored wood, and the appearance of the bakery matched nicely with the appetizing smell coming from within.

As she walked inside, a bell on top of the door clanged to announce her presence, and the hubbub of voices from the many customers greeted her ears. There were tables scattered about the place, most of them taken by people enjoying the meals they had just bought. The counter at the back of the store was busy as customers were served and brought their food from the kitchen, which could barely be seen through an open doorway behind the counter.

Cada started to make her way to an open table in the back of the room, but as she glanced about the room, she quickly noticed, to her surprise, the very person she had been looking for. He was sitting at a table on the far side of the room, holding a book that, she noticed, he wasn't reading. His eyes were staring at the page without moving. Clearly, he had been waiting for her to walk in.

She made her way over to his table and sat down without waiting for an invitation. He made no move to acknowledge her presence, but she knew he would stop pretending to read eventually, and then they could get to the real reason she was here, so far away from her hideout on the other side of the city.

The bell on top of the bakery door clanged again, and she noticed Spud walk in and take a seat near the door. He didn't look over at her, but she knew he would be prepared if she needed help.

Eventually, the silence at her table ended when the man in the other chair sighed and placed his book on the table, not bothering to mark the page he was on.

"Cada," he said, looking up at her with a cold gaze.

"Recknar," she replied, her voice equally as icy.

"Let's get this over with, shall we?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.

"You know why I'm here. The Sunswift brothers want the money you owe them. You hand it over, and this doesn't have to go any further." She glared at him, hoping to make her unsaid threat clear. He seemed to consider it, looking at the door as if contemplating the freedom his days would have if he just handed over the gold. Then he looked down at the table and chuckled.

"You and I both know that isn't going to happen."

Cada sighed, disappointed that she hadn't been able to change his mind so easily. "Well then, looks like we'll have to do this the hard way."

As she stood up, she heard more chairs than just hers scrape against the floor, and she looked up to see about a quarter of the bakery reaching for their weapons. She muttered a curse and looked across to Spud, who was tentatively reaching for the dagger he wore at his belt.

With at least seven people against them, she knew they wouldn't be able to get to Recknar unless they had some serious tricks up their sleeves. Which, unfortunately, they didn't. Cada moved her hands away from the knives at her belt and raised them above her head to show that she wouldn't be trying anything.

Recknar smirked at the obvious disadvantage she had. "I'm going to be leaving this city unharmed and with all my money. You can tell those halfwits who hired you that their coin was wasted."

He stood up from the table and grabbed his book, clearly ready to leave Arnoth behind. Cada saw something out of the corner of her eye, and she glanced over at Spud to see him take something out of his pocket. He gave her a wink and a small smile, and, raising his hand above his head, he quickly threw down whatever he had retrieved from his pocket.

As soon as the object hit the ground, it exploded into a mass of smoke that quickly filled up the entire room, causing customers to start coughing and running out of the bakery. Through the smoky haze, Cada could just barely see the dark shapes of people around her. Closest to her was the coughing form of Recknar Shadehand, who was using his book to try and fan away some of the smoke.

After having been on the street for so long, Cada had learned quite a few things that had helped her to survive. One of those things had been how to pick a pocket, and even though she hadn't been able to get Recknar to see sense, she could still rob him blind and complete the job that way.

She crouched down to where the smoke was thinner, and, using the confusion and chaos to her advantage, she snuck over to where Recknar was standing. Hopefully he would be too busy with the smoke to notice her hand reaching for his coin purse.

She wrapped her hand around the leather bag tied to his waist and gently pulled, feeling confident when she wasn't finding any resistance. Through the smoke, as she was pulling away, she noticed that instead of the standard leather loop that held the bag in place, there was a small chain looped around his belt. Feeling the slight tug at his coin purse, Recknar turned slightly toward her and smacked her hand away. He started to back towards the window of the bakery, away from her.

"Mayholm!" he yelled. "Have you and your men take care of these wretches!"

A shape loomed out of the smoke next to Recknar and raised something above its head. Thinking it was Mayholm, Cada rolled to the side, further into the cloud of smoke.

The figure brought the object down towards Recknar, and Cada could now tell that this was not Mayholm, but instead he companion Spud, with a chair in his hands.

Even though he was aiming for Recknar, Cada could tell that the heavy chair had pulled him off balance, and instead of smashing the chair on top of Recknar's head, as she was sure he had intended to do, he topped, and the chair smashed onto the ground a couple feet to her right, nearly on top of where she had been a few moments ago.

Recknar gave them one last look and sprinted out of the bakery. Cada cursed again and, with Spud scrambling to get up behind her, she ran out of the bakery, dodging people who were still flailing in the smoke as she did so.

The door had been left open by one of the bakery's staff to let out some of the smoke and panicking customers, which made for an easy exit. Ahead of her, she saw Recknar take a right out of The Morning Sun and start running down the street towards the Harbor. The crowds were still present, and she could see that Recknar was having a hard time maneuvering down the street.

She edged her was into the crowd at a sprint, not hesitating to gently shove people out of the way. Slowly, Cada began closing the distance, and soon he was within range of a well-placed tackle.

She shoved her shoulder into the left side of his back and used both of their momentum to grab the off-balance Recknar by the shoulders and swing him into a nearby alleyway.

She quickly ducked into the alleyway and reached for a knife as he scrambled to get to his feet.

Before she could act, however, she heard a voice from behind her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Cada turned to see Spud standing behind her, an arrow nocked in his bow and pointed straight at Recknar, who had paused in his scrambling and was now staring fearfully at Spud's weapon.

Cada retrieved a knife from her belt and flipped it in the air before coming closer to kneel in front of Recknar. His attention was now almost fully on her, with occasional glances at her companion.

"So," began Cada in a conversational tone, as if they could have been talking about the weather. "Are you going to hand over that money or what?"

He looked fearfully at their weapons once more, then reached frantically for his coin purse. Cada smirked, pleased that it had been relatively easy.

Recknar tossed the coin purse to Cada and made to get up as she was loosening the drawstrings of the leather bag. Behind her, she heard Spud take a step forward and say, "Not so fast. We need to make sure it's all there."

Cada stood up as she counted the coins. There were two large gold Drenns, about fifteen smaller gold pieces, five silver coins, and a small bronze coin from one of the many islands that were not too far off shore.

She nodded to Spud as she closed the coin purse, and he lowered his bow, allowing Recknar to run out the alley. Cada tossed the coin purse in the air and smiled at Spud as it landed back in her hand with a merry jingle. Chuckling at her jovial mood, Spud swung his bow into its place on his back and slid his arrow into its quiver.

"Well, I'd say that's a job well done," said Cada as the pair walked out of the alleyway.

"If you insist," laughed Spud. "We nearly lost him though."

"Yeah, but we didn't," she replied, a slight skip in her step.

As they walked further, the street they were on began to climb upwards, and the soon crested a hill from which they could see the Arnoth Harbor. A pleasant breeze was rolling in, a few clouds dotting the sky as seagulls swooped through the air. Even from this distance, Cada could tell that the Harbor was crowded, as usual.

In silent agreement, Spud and Cada turned left, away from the Harbor and towards their little ramshackle base, which was still little more than half a city away.

"How much was in the purse?" Spud asked.

"Probably all that he had. There was a little extra besides the Drenns we were asked to retrieve."

"I'm surprised you didn't give him a few coins so he could get out of here," said Spud as he slided sideways past a cart filled with fruit.

"Hey, just because I give a Drindel to every musician I see on the street doesn't mean I'm gonna give a slimy cheat some money that we could use. And besides, I'm sure he's got a stash somewhere. Only the rich keep all of their money in the same place."

"And the stupid."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

Spud only chuckled in response as they made their way further along familiar streets. On this South End of Arnoth, not too far from where the mostly poor clashed with the mostly wealthy, and a reasonable distance from the main heart of trade at the Harbor, several market streets thrived with business. The street that Cada and Spud were traveling down at the moment was one of the less successful ones, but it still brought in quite a few customers, creating enough of a crowd where the pair would go unnoticed.

A few streets before their usual turning point, Cada grabbed Spud by the arm and pointed him down another street that was heading toward West Watch, away from their home.

Spud looked at his friend, confused about the sudden change in direction. "Forget something?"

"No, but clearly you left your wits back at the bakery."

He pretended to check his pockets. "Did I?"

She glared at him.

"What? What am I missing?" he asked.

"Someone's been following us for the past five blocks."


	2. Royalty

The pair walked as one down the alley they had so abruptly turned onto, hoping that the sudden hurried manner would fool their pursuer into thinking that they were close to their hideout. With a brief glance at his companion, Spud could tell that Cada was listening intently to the sounds that were echoing throughout the small alley. Their own footsteps sounded loud in Spud's ears, but he knew Cada could distinguish the small differences between their own footsteps and the person behind them.

Cada, who was still holding onto his arm, gave two quick squeezes as a signal, and at the next intersection, they both veered to the right as there was another alley crossing about five feet further on. At that crossing, they simultaneously split off in opposite directions, Spud to the left, Cada to the right. There they waited in tense silence for their follower to catch up.

It wasn't a perfect plan and they both knew that. It was possible that their pursuer would guess their tactic and try to find the pairs' home some other day. Right now, this was the best plan they had, and if it ended in them fighting for their life because of how last-minute it was...well, it wouldn't be the first time.

Spud quietly brought his bow off of his shoulder, preparing to shoot at whoever was following them if they proved to be a real threat. He did not yet reach for an arrow for fear that the metal tip would scrape against the quiver and draw attention.

Finally, a hooded figure stopped at the mouth of the alley, just on the edge of Spud's vision. Across the way, he saw Cada give the barest of nods and leap out of the alley, knife drawn and arcing down in a silver streak towards their pursuer. In the few seconds it took for Spud to draw an arrow and step out of the alley, Cada already had their follower held captive with her knife at their throat.

Their captive was wearing a silver-white cloak that fell down past her knees and completely concealed any defining features with the hood. Beneath the cloak, she wore a simple but expensive looking tunic, cotton shirt, and loose fitting pants, all in tones of gray and white. She had black leather boots that looked comfortable enough to run in, and, around her neck, she wore a long silver chain with a somewhat familiar looking pendant. The woman was breathing heavily as her life was now in danger, and her hands were raised in surrender.

"Who the hell are you?" Cada hissed through her teeth. Spud saw the lady swallow before she started to speak.

"I want to hire you," she said uncertainly, still holding her hands aloft.

Cada pressed the knife closer to the lady's throat. "That doesn't answer my question. And I don't take jobs given to me by strangers who try to follow me to my home,"

Spud was about to object, as nearly all of the jobs that took came from strangers who followed them, but he thought better of it when he saw the warning glare Cada was giving him. He shut his mouth and moved closer to their captive, wanting to get a closer look at the symbol she wore around her neck. The twisting swirls that made up the pendant looked strangely familiar, and it took him a moment to realize why.

This same symbol adorned the side of the royal palace in Upper Arnoth, nearly two miles away from their current location.

"Cada..." he said nervously, lowering his bow.

"What?" she shot him a piercing glare.

"I...don't think you should be threatening the Queen like this..." Spud hoped that his assumption was correct. He had never actually seen the Queen, and had really only heard rumors of her as she usually kept to her castle. When she did come out for special occasions, there were always huge crowds, and Cada liked to stay away from those.

Cada blinked. "The Queen?" She brought her knife away from the woman's' throat and stepped over to Spud's side. "Are you sure?"

"Reasonably."

In response, the woman lowered her hood, allowing her features to come into the light. She had a petite face framed by dirty-blonde hair, her piercing blue-gray eyes glaring out at the pair in annoyance. With Spud and Cada now in front of her and not threatening her, she stood a little straighter.

Even though Spud knew that this had to be the Queen given how royal she looked despite her simple attire, Cada still had her doubts.

"You're the Queen?" she asked, looking the woman up and down.

"Yes, but for my safety as well as yours, please call me Danni while we're down here."

Cada glanced at Spud, clearly still confused about the whole situation. "And. . .why _are_ you here?"

"I have something I need to ask of you."

Cada looked to Spud once more, than back to the Queen, clearly irritated. "We don't do favors." Clearly thinking that her time had been wasted, Cada turned and started to walk further down the alley, uninterested in whatever the Queen had to say.

Spud turned to follow, but he paused when the Queen said, "I am willing to pay a great sum of money."

Up ahead, he saw Cada come swiftly to a halt. After a few moments of deliberation, she spun around and stalked back towards Danni, folding her arms and looking at the Queen expectantly.

"What, exactly, do you want us to do and for how much?"

The Queen smiled gently. "Perhaps there is somewhere we could talk in private?"

Cada nodded thoughtfully, considering her options. "Well, we don't normally do this, but..." She turned to Spud to ask for his opinion. "What do you think? Should we go home? We can trust her, right?"

Spud knew Cada could trust people very easily, but after talking with Danni for a little over three minutes, with half of that time having been spent with a knife at the Queen's throat, Spud wasn't too sure about immediately letting her into their home. That information could be used against them if they weren't careful about who knew where their hideout was.

He leaned closer to Cada. "Are you sure?"

"She's the Queen mate, what could go wrong?" Seeing the look he gave her, she explained her thought process. "If we do this job well-and we will-then she will have no reason to seek us out with harmful intentions. And besides, mostly everything we do is completely legal. We have nothing to fear!"

He sighed. He wasn't going to be able to convince her otherwise, and she seemed to think the Queen was harmless. He nodded, but out of the Queen's line of sight, he held up two fingers in a symbol of caution. It was part of a code they had created for when they couldn't verbally communicate on a job, and she acknowledged it with a slight twitch of her arm.

"Well, Your Highness, we have the perfect place!" said Cada as she turned to the Queen with a dramatic flourish. "Follow me!"

Cada started walking back the way they had come, and Spud, after putting away his bow once more, motioned for the Queen to go in front of him. It was in this fashion that they made their way through the streets of Lower Arnoth, the Queen looking around nervously whenever they encountered people. Judging by her shifty manner, Danni would probably get in serious trouble if it were discovered that she was down here without a guard.

Once they were in the alley they had originally meant to travel down, Cada started leading the small group through a maze of alleyways which would leave most with a twisted sense of direction. The Queen, however, did not appear to be visibly confused, and calmly followed Cada with steady strides.

After going down about seventeen different alleys, Cada came to a halt. She looked around to make sure that the trio was alone, then took out a set of keys and unlocked a ragged but sturdy door that was set into a plain looking wall. For all that its outward appearances suggested, it could have been a long abandoned storage room, but once inside, it was so much better and different than that.

Cada quickly ushered the Queen inside, and Spud followed behind her, leaving Cada to lock the door. Their home was simple but cozy, with large orange and blue silk tapestries hanging from the ceiling and giving the room a welcome sense of warmth. The place had originally been a single large room, but sometime in the past five years, a loft had been constructed in the upper back half of the room, just beneath several small, circular windows. Spud couldn't see the furniture in the loft from his current vantage point, but he knew that his bed and Cada's hammock would be waiting for them up there when night came.

Beneath the loft was a simple dining area that was mainly made up of a small table and two wooden chairs. They had a third chair tucked away somewhere in the storage pile for when they had guests, which was very rarely. Spud dumped his stuff on top of a chest that was in a corner by the table, then walked to the other side of the room where the storage pile was located.

Despite the slightly messy appearance, the pair had worked out a system for the clutter. On the right half of the pile was a system of boxes and chests that held all of the useless shit they had collected over the years. Cada liked to call it 'insurance', for the unlikely occasion that they would need to sell something in order to buy food or other essential items. Their extra chair was on this pile, currently sitting upside down on one of the crates. The other side of the pile, which was separated from the useless shit side by a tiny aisle, was another storage system of boxes and crates, this time filled with stuff that they might potentially use.

Spud grabbed the extra chair and lifted it over to it's rarely occupied space at the table. Cada had crossed to the back of the room and was currently climbing the ladder that led to the loft as she called over shoulder for the Queen to 'make herself at home'. Seeing that Danni was looking around uncertainly, Spud gestured to the third chair he had pulled over, and she sat down with a gracious smile.

As the only windows in the room didn't let much light travel to the bottom floor, Spud found his matchstick box and set fire to the candle on the table. Warm light flooded their little downstairs area, allowing Spud to get a better look at the Queen, who had removed her hood now that they were inside. She had the stern, yet kind look of someone who had been ruling over a kingdom for quite some time, but the main thing that Spud noticed was that she looked tired. More than that, and perhaps more concerning, she looked worried.

"Right!" Cada called out as she descended the ladder, now lacking any bags she had been carrying earlier. Her knives were still on her belt, ready to be used in case anything happened. "What did you want to hire us for?" She walked over the table, sat down, and leaned back in her chair.

The Queen sat up a little straighter. "Some acquaintances of mine have gone missing. I'd like you to track them down and bring them back to Arnoth."

"These blokes must be important if they've got _your_ attention. Who are they anyway?" Cada grabbed a water flask that had been sitting on the table and uncorked it to take a swig.

"My friends Rage, Hollow, and Fluke. Formally known as the Crew."

At this, Cada choked on her water, spewing some of it onto the table. With a slightly wild look in her eyes, she uttered a word that Spud wasn't familiar with, but judging from he reaction to the Queen's words, it was probably a curse. After a few coughs, she looked to the Queen, disbelief on her face.

"The Crew," she stated.

"Yes, I...I did say the Crew." The Queen looked to Spud uncertainly, as if asking if this was a normal Cada-type reaction. He merely shrugged in response, having no idea who the Crew was or why the mention of them had evoked such a shocked response from his friend.

"Just to be sure, we're talking about the same Crew who saved Arnoth from the Silver Dragon?"

"Yes, that is the same Crew."

Cada leaned back in her chair, still blinking in disbelief. Finally, she sighed, a look on her face that told Spud she was dreading the task the Queen had set for them.

"Right, what hell hole did they fall into and why do you want _us_ to go get them?"

Spud frowned. She had a good point. "Yeah, why not just get someone in the Palace to track them down?" he asked, directing his attention to the Queen.

"No one in the Palace will believe me when I say that they have been gone for far too long."

"And how long has that been?" asked Cada.

"A month and a half." The Queen sighed and reached up to grab her necklace. "They left on a short journey to Rinsmark to get rid of a pack of Howler Demons that had been plaguing the townspeople. At the most, they should have been gone for a week, and yet I have received no word of their whereabouts since they left Arnoth."

"That's...troubling..." said Cada after a brief pause, clearly unsure of what to say.

"How much are you going to pay us?" asked Spud, breaking the awkward silence that had formed.

"I can give you ten thousand Drenns."

Spud had a feeling that if Cada had had water in her mouth at that moment, the table would have gotten another splash. Her eyes seemed to bug out of her head, and Spud saw her take a couple of deep breaths before responding.

"That...ok, that's...that's a good payment. Um...yes. Ok."

"I can give you more if that's not enough," said the Queen, clearly misunderstanding the reason behind Cada's struggle for words.

"Your Majesty, that will be plenty," said Spud, speaking for his friend as it seemed she had lost the ability of speech for the moment.

"Thank you for doing this," said the Queen. "Is there anything else that needs to be done before I go back to the Palace?"

"Wait, you're going back to the Palace like that?" asked Cada.

"Like what?"

"Like... _that_." Lacking the words to describe what she meant, Cada gestured to the Queen's outfit. "You don't exactly blend in."

"I'll be fine," The Queen tried to reassure her, but Cada still looked concerned.

"How's this," Cada began. "We'll walk you back to the Palace so you don't get hurt or Queen-napped or something, and once we're there, we'll get the first half of our payment! Sound good?" She held out her hand to shake on the deal, and the Queen, after a few moments of deliberation, complied.

"Is there anything else then?" The Queen was clearly anxious to get back to her home quickly.

"No, that should be sufficient, right Cada?"

She jerked out of whatever thoughts she had been lost in moments ago. "What? Oh, yeah, that'll be good."

The Queen stood up. "If you have any questions about this, please do not hesitate to ask."

"Course, Your Majesty. Now let's get you back home."

They stood and, once Spud and Cada had gathered their things, they left their home, making sure to lock the door behind them like always. They tried briefly to instruct the Queen on how to act like a commoner, but to no avail. She stuck out like a sore thumb in the streets of Lower Arnoth, and Spud could only hope that their brief journey would go smoothly.

They walked through the city as they had done when going to their house, with Danni in between the pair with her hood up. The sun was now high in the sky, which made for an increase to the crowd's numbers. The market streets were bustling and hard to pass through, and when they were able to get a good look at the Harbor, a good portion of land was taken up by a sea of people.

They made their way through the rest of Lower Arnoth and quickly traversed Upper Arnoth surprisingly without incident. Soon they were standing at the Palace gates, and Danni was lowering her hood and walking in like she owned the place. Which, Spud supposed, she quite literally did.

The guards let them pass without comment, but when they reached the upper levels of the Palace, the discovered that not everyone was alright with the Queen walking into Lower Arnoth to collect a couple of mercenaries from the slums.

A well dressed young man with brown hair going slightly past his ear rounded a corner ahead of them, looking distraught and worried as he swiftly went down the hallway. As soon as he caught sight of Danni, however, his face relaxed, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he began walking towards her. His eyes darted toward Cada and Spud as he took note of their presence, and when he reached the Queen, his eyes held a sternness that they hadn't a moment before.

"Where have you been?" he muttered. Danni had now come to a halt, and Cada and Spud, who both felt very out of place, were standing awkwardly behind the Queen and the annoyed newcomer.

"You missed a very important meeting with the ambassadors from the neighboring counties. I had to cover for you and run the meeting in your absence!" He straightened his robes and glared first at the Queen, then at the pair behind her. "And who have you picked up this time? More strays?"

Danni placed her hand on the man's shoulder in a placating gesture. "Thank you for doing that, Evanz. You know I trust you completely, and any decisions you had to make I'm sure I'll agree with." She turned back to the pair behind her, a gentle smile on her face. "And these are the people I hired to find the Crew. I was just going to give them the first half of their payment now. Would you care to join us?"

His eyes widened. "Their _payment?_ Your Majesty, how can you possibly expect the treasury to agree to this?"

"I'm not expecting them to agree to anything," she responded as she began walking down the corridor once more, her three companions following uncertainly behind her. "I am going to take the money out of my private cache."

Evanz was struggling to keep the same pace as the Queen as he spluttered for an argument. "Your Majesty, you cannot-"

"I believe you'll find I can," she said, turning to him swiftly and bringing the group to a halt once more. "There are no rules forbidding me from spending my own money on what I think necessary."

"But mercenaries are highly unreliable-"

"Who else was I going to hire, Evanz? Everyone else in the palace thinks I'm overreacting, so I must say I had little choice in the matter. Speak to me about my decisions later if you must, but right now, I cannot find time for a lengthy discussion."

A few moments passes in which the two simply glared at each other in a contest of wills, but finally, Evanz sighed and nodded. "If you insist. You'll be the one to explain to the council though."

"I would expect nothing less."

At that, the Queen began walking down the hallway once more, Evanz at her side. Cada and Spud followed behind, utterly lost in the halls of the palace and concerned about what the Queen had gotten them involved in.

Down countless stone hallways they travelled, going deeper and deeper into the palace. Occasionally they encountered guards and other denizens of the castle, but the paid the odd group no attention. Eventually they reached two intricately carved doors, with two guards stationed outside them.

The Queen motioned for Spud and Cada to wait outside. "I'll be back in just a moment. I'm afraid only my closest friends are allowed in my private quarters." She smiled gently at the pair, and they nodded their understanding.

As soon as the Queen and her advisor had disappeared into the room, Cada grabbed Spud by the arm and turned him so that they were both facing away from the guards at the door.

"Are we sure this is a good idea?" she asked, worry evident on her face.

"Nope. Are we gonna do it anyway?"

"Probably."

They looked back at the guards for a moment, then turned to face the wall again.

"Whatever happens, we'll just have to be careful. Watch each other's backs, like always," said Cada.

"Like always," Spud responded as he patted her on the back.

The door opened behind them, and they spun around and tried to act like that hadn't just been talking in whispers. The Queen was carrying a large cloth sack, which she quickly handed off to Cada. When his partner opened it, Spud could see the glimmer of large, golden Drenns.

Evanz was standing by the Queen with his arms crossed, clearly still disapproving of this whole affair. "Honestly, what is the point of being your advisor if you're not going to listen to me?" he asked.

"You and I both know that they've been gone for too long, Evanz. I had to do something," the Queen replied. She turned to the pair expectantly. "Do you need anything else?"

"No...That should be everything," said Spud after a hesitant glance with Cada.

"Very well. Good luck to you both." said the Queen, giving them each a nod. "I have complete faith in you both."

Evanz saw their nervous smiles and gestured to the hallway to their left, the direction they had just come from. "I can escort you two back to the Palace gates. Follow me." He turned and started walking down the corridor.

As they were leaving, Spud gave the Queen a last farewell nod. She smiled graciously in returned, then resumed a worried expression as he was rounding the corner.

Spud hoped, for her sake as well as theirs, that they could find the missing Crew quickly, and that they could find them all safe.


	3. Loose Ends

Cada reached into another chest, grabbed a coil of rope, and held it up for Spud to see. "Necessary?"

"Are we going climbing?"

"You never know."

He looked up from the pile of stuff he was sorting through and stared at Cada quizzically. "How long are we planning to be gone on this trip?"

"No idea. It could just take a week, but the Crew thought the same thing when they left and they've been gone for far longer." She threw the coil of rope over to Spud so he could continue sorting through things that could be necessary on their journey.

Cada looked back into the trunk and began rummaging once more. This chest had more climbing gear than just rope (and probably more gear than was actually ever going to be needed) but Cada doubted that it would benefit them if they brought it. It would just end up taking up room. At the bottom of the trunk there were a couple of cloaks, a thin silver circlet, and a pair of sturdy leather boots, all of them with labels attached. She picked up the boots and examined the tag. It was her handwriting, but she couldn't remember ever getting these supposed 'Boots of Stealth'. When she looked at the other items, they had similar tags and titles. Still holding the boots, she turned the label around and found, to her delight, a description. However, it was the most helpful of explanations as it merely said, "Boots that make you extra sneaky. No sound. Shadows." Cada cursed her past self for not thinking to write something more helpful as she started removing the tag from the boot laces.

Spud looked up from the pile he was working on as he was shoving a matchstick box into one of the bags they would be carrying. "Since when did we have extra boots?"

"I don't know. I can't remember ever getting these." She sat down on a trunk and began removing her own boots. Once they were off, she put on one of the Boots of Stealth. When they had been laced all the way up, the effect was immediate. A pool of shadow coalesced around the boot, going all the way up to her knee before tapering off and letting light shine normally around her thigh.

Spud, who was staring at the boot as if it were witchcraft (which, to be fair, it probably was), dropped the coil of rope he had been holding briefly. " _What the fu-_ "

"Cool!" Interrupted Cada as she twisted her foot this way and that to see how the shadow adapted to the way she was moving. It perfectly encased her leg, and even melded with other shadows when she moved the boot closer to the corners of the room, where the light didn't quite reach.

"We're definitely bringing these," said Cada as she began unlacing the boot again so she could go back to her normal footwear.

"We are?" asked Spud uncertainly.

"Yeah. According to unhelpful past me they make you extra sneaky."

"Right. . ."

He went back to sorting useful stuff into bags as Cada checked out the other items. The silver crown's tag proclaimed that it made the wearer able to easily persuade people, but when she asked Spud to go rob the High Inquisitor of all he had, he refused, so she kind of doubted it's abilities. The cloaks were nearly identical, with only the clasps to tell them apart. The first was labelled as the 'Cloak of Archery'. and was supposedly meant to improve your aim. The second was the 'Cloak of Spell Casting' and, according to the description, it would provide a boost to any magic the wearer attempted to cast. She threw the Cloak of Archery over to Spud, figuring he might find it useful. She tossed the other cloak and the circlet back into the chest, as neither of them knew any magic, and the crown didn't appear to have any noticeable effect.

She closed the chest and strolled over to where Spud was packing the last of their things into the two bags they would be carrying. As he was nearly done packing, Cada walked over to the ladder that led to the loft and began to climb. Once she was up on the platform, she crossed to where her hammock was and crawled around it to the wall behind. In the corner was a brick with a splotch of discoloration that she knew was loose, as she used it and the space behind it to store things she didn't want getting stolen. She had many spaces like this in order to minimize the chance of any major theft happening. This particular space held the money that she still needed to deliver to the Sunswift brothers and a sheaf of papers that marked the citizenship of both her and Spud. She grabbed both of these items and put the brick back in its rightful place. After going down the first couple of rungs, she paused and looked at the little loft area that had taken her so many years to finally make it home. She had a sinking feeling that it was going to be a while before she saw her hammock again.

Once at the bottom of the ladder, she walked over to the backpack she would be carrying and put both the papers and the money in an easy to reach pocket. She then went to one of the chests and sat on it to take her boots off once more. It would be impractical to carry an extra set of boots in an already heavy backpack, and she wanted to see it there was some way to turn the magical effects of the boots on and off. It would be inconvenient at the very least to be constantly walking in a very conspicuous pool of shadow.

While she was experimenting with the boots (she eventually found that she could click her heels to control the shadows that pooled around her feet), Spud was cursing over the cloak she had tossed to him. Judging from his exclamations, the cloak made his vision enhance when he was drawing an arrow to shoot. It would probably take some getting used to.

Eventually, after a lot of reluctance, the pair found themselves standing in front of their door, fully geared up and ready to go. Cada locked the door behind them and, after checking to make sure it was just her and Spud in the alley, she jumped at the wall of their building and started climbing, using handholds that blended into the wall so well that they were practically invisible. She got about two-thirds of the way up the building before she reached a mass of wooden boards that had been placed there to look like they were masking a broken window. Instead, it was hiding another safe spot that currently wasn't being used to hide anything. She slid one of the boards to the left and placed the keys in the hidey-hole before closing the space back up and traversing down the wall once more.

When she was back on solid ground, she noticed the look that Spud had probably been giving her for the past few minutes. "What? I don't want to lose those while we're out." She said it like they were just going on a brief trip, but they both knew they would be gone for far longer.

"Nothing. You're just weird," he said with a small smile.

"Damn right I am. Now come on, let's get going." She strode off down the alley without a second look back at the home they were leaving behind.

"Why the big rush?" asked Spud as he caught up with her.

"The sooner we get started on this job, the sooner we get paid in full. And besides that, we've still got some business to take care of before we leave."

She led the way through the alleyways that made up Lower Arnoth and began travelling further South. As they walked, the buildings around them turned shoddier and less well-kept as they entered the slums. Here there were beggars on the street, panning for coin, and people dressed in rags that wouldn't help them when winter came to the city.

The pair made their way East to a house that seemed considerably more well-off than the rest of Lower Arnoth, with clean walls and a roof with no holes in it. The windows had curtains that weren't tattered, and there was no evidence of shattered glass. If Cada hadn't known better, she owuld have thought they were on the edge of Upper Arnoth.

She walked up to the painted blue door and knocked loudly. Seconds passed before the door was wrenched open and she found herself facing an angry man holding a very, very sharp ax. She stepped away from the door and raised her hands in peace, but as soon as the man in the doorway recognized her, he lowered his weapon, a startled expression on his face.

"Cada. . . Sorry. Thought you were someone else," he said in a gruff voice.

"It's alright. Believe it or not I'm quite used to having weapons shoved in my face," she said cheerfully. The man was on the tall side, with a scruffy beard and long brown hair that was tied back in a pony tail. While he was normally quite intimidating, he now looked apologetic, almost sheepish at his mistake.

He put his weapon in a sheath at his side and asked, "Is that bastard Recknar giving you any trouble?"

"No, I've actually come to give you the money that he stole." Erid Sunswift looked relieved.

"That's great! Here, let me go get your payment."He scurried off into his house and returned moment later with a small pouch full of silver Drennels. "I-I know it's not much, but it's all I've got at the moment. If you come back in a week my brother with be able to give you more."

"Actually, sir," interjected Spud as he stepped forward to address the man. "We're going to be travelling out of the city for a while, and we're not sure when we'll return."

"And besides," said Cada as she handed Erid the two golden Drenns she had gotten off of Recknar. "This is enough payment. You don't owe us anything more."

"Are you sure? I feel like it's not enough," he protested.

Cada gave him a reassuring smile. "It's enough."

He almost looked flustered as they watched him try to work out a way to pay them in full. "Well. . . My wife just baked some scones, let me at least send you off with food before you go." And with that, he disappeared into the house once more.

Cada turned to Spud excitedly, and almost childish look of happiness on her face. "We get scones!" she half-whispered. Spud chuckled in amusement and reached over to muss up her hair. She playfully pushed him away, and a few moments later, a petite woman with long auburn hair greeted them at the door with a basket full of baked goods.

"I heard you were leaving for a while," said Cecin with an inquisitive smile. Cada nodded, her mouth already beginning to water at the smell of Cecin's pastries.

"Well, since my scones are best on the day they're made, I'm giving you two for your trip out of the city." She handed Cada two scones wrapped in cloth with a warning to 'Eat them while they're hot!', as well as a bag of bread they could eat throughout their journey. She gave them each a hug before the left the Sunswift house, both of them happily munching on fresh scones and feeling more positive than they had been minutes before.

The pair walked through the city, now almost looking forward to the adventure that lay before them. They stopped about fifteen feet away from the city gate that would let them through to the rest of the world and whatever fate would await them.

Cada turned to Spud, suddenly apprehensive. "Are we ready for this? I mean, it's kind of a lot, what we're about to do."

He nodded and patted her on the back comfortingly. "We've got this." They looked through the city gate at the long expanse of field that they would have to cross before they reached the forest. It would be another two days before they reached Rinsmark, and who knew how long it would take for them to find the Crew after they reached their first destination.

"And besides," he continued with a definite lack of reassurance. "It's not like we have a choice now."

Cada gave him an exasperated grin. "You're terrible."

He nudged her shoulder in response. "I'm just saying what we're both thinking."

"I know." She took one last look at the city behind her. "Come on, let's go before we change our minds."

The pair walked through the Southern Gate of Arnoth, with no clue what lay on the path before them.


	4. Nature Boy

Being in the forest again was a kind of bittersweet reunion for Spud. He had grown up in a forest not too far from here, but he hadn't returned since his arrival in Arnoth seven years ago. Travelling like this again...It felt like home, but it also felt uncomfortably alien to him. He found himself noticing every little thing, acutely aware of every sound and broken twig, regardless of whether it could mean danger or not.

Spud noticed in particular that, while she was completely silent in the city, Cada was _very_ loud in the woods. With every other step, she crushed a twig or a dry leaf lying on the path, and Spud found himself wishing they could travel a bit more quietly. Or, he thought with a twinge of slight bitterness, that he could stop feeling so on edge.

Cada, at the very least, seemed to be enjoying herself. Every few minutes she would run up ahead to check out a tree or a bush that had caught her attention, or she would stop and stare straight up at the leaves and branches that hung over their heads. Occasionally, she would get so distracted that he would actually have to remind her that they had some famous people to rescue in order to get her moving again.

Eventually, after Cada went to climb a fallen log that creaked and groaned with every step she took, Spud spoke up about his discomfort. "Cada, maybe we should travel a bit more quietly?"

She hopped down from the log and landed lightly in the moss and fall leaves beneath. "Why? It's not like we're trying to hide from anyone."

"Yes, but with all the noise you're making, we could attract something dangerous."

"Wolves or Wargs?" she asked. It was a common saying that most everyone knew of. It was a way of asking if the danger was something natural, like wolves, or something more dangerous and mythical, like Wargs.

He hesitated. "Wolves most likely, but there's always a chance it could be something more."

She smiled gently. "I think we'll be fine, Spud. And besides, this is my first time in a forest! I want to have fun for a little bit before we revert back to being cautious."

He blinked in surprise. "This is your. . . ?"

"Yup!" She continued along the path, and after Spud shook away his disbelief, he quickly followed.

After that conversation, Spud found himself relaxing a bit more. Occasionally, he would point to some odd colored moss or a cluster of mushrooms on the forest floor, and he would tell Cada about its importance to the area around it, or what would happen if you ate it (He had to stop her from reaching for a lot of plants after that). He found that he was enjoying Cada's curiosity about everything that surrounded her. She wasn't like this in Arnoth, mostly because she had explored the city so much that she now knew it like the back of her hand.

They traveled until they could see the sun starting to set through the branches, the soft golden light painting the forest in shadow and intermittent rays of sunlight. Spud started looking for a place to make camp for the night, and soon they reached a small clearing between two massive, intertwining oak trees. He started making a campfire while Cada laid out their bedrolls, and soon they had the perfect camping setup.

They stayed awake for a little while in silence, eating some of the food they had packed and staring out at the woods beyond. The stars began to peek out in the empty spaces between the tree branches, glimmering faintly and far away.

Eventually, Cada broke the silence. "We really don't know what the hell we're doing, do we?"

He looked up at her from across the fire. "Do we ever?"

She poked the fire with a stick for a few moments, seeming to be lost in thought. Sparks flared up and cascaded into the dark above, then she sighed, brushed the hair out of her face, and tossed the stick into the fire.

"I'll take first watch. I'll wake you when I need you to take over."

"You sure?"

She raised an eyebrow at him in a half-joking glare. "Get some rest, Nature Boy."

He gave her a little half smile before getting comfortable in his bedroll. He stared up at the branches of the oak trees overhead, and for a moment, he couldn't tell which branches belonged to which tree. They intertwined so closely it was near impossible to tell them apart, and he thought that, perhaps, they had grown like that, separate, but still supporting each other through all of the various hardships a tree might endure.

He closed his eyes, thoughts of branches and deep, twisting roots still in his mind. Cada would wake him when it was time.

. . . . .

Danni leaned away from the pool as the vision faded, her brow furrowed. The pair she had hired were on the right track so far, but something didn't feel right. She just couldn't place what it was...

She placed her hand in the pool once more and concentrated, this time on her missing companions. The pool clouded, and she closed her eyes as her mind shot out over the countryside towards Rinsmark. The town was quaint and quiet, with no sign of danger anywhere. And again, no sign of her friends. Her mind raced over the town, tracing a path around the outskirts where it met the forest, a path that was annoyingly too well worn and familiar to her sights. She didn't know, at this point, how many times she had wandered this way, searching for a glimpse of something familiar, something out of place-

A gentle hand on her shoulder jolted her out of her fruitless search. Evanz had been going through paperwork on a desk to the side of her room while she sat by the pool and went over scenery she had gone over many times before. He held a steaming cup of tea in his hand, and he set it down on the pools edge before sitting next to her, staring down at the water.

"Any luck?" he asked, folding his hands in his lap.

"No..." she sighed, frustrated. "I've looked over everything I can in that area, they're nowhere!" She took a tentative sip of the tea she had been given and sighed again.

"Have you tried locating them? With your scrying?" He had heard her explain the spell before, but it was clear that he still didn't quite understand how it worked.

"I've tried many times, and everytime I cast the spell I get nothing. Which means they're either in another plane or-" She didn't finish the sentence. She wasn't quite sure if she wanted to consider that possibility, that she would never get them back.

Evanz put a comforting hand on her shoulder once more. "Those mercenaries you hired... They'll find them."

Her brow furrowed. "I thought you didn't trust them."

He shrugged. "Honestly, I still don't. But I've been looking into their history and...Well, they're the nicest mercenaries I've ever heard about." He brought out a sheaf of papers from an inside pocket of his robe and began flipping through the portfolio. "When they first started making a name fore themselves, they donated a rather large sum of money to an orphanage that was struggling to feed its occupants over on the east side of the city. They bought a house for a man and his three children, who had previously been living on the street, at no cost to him or his family. And after all this time, and after all the jobs they've taken, they're still in no real position of wealth or power because they donate at least half of their income to others."

"And why is the Palace concerned with them?" she asked, gesturing toward the papers he was holding.

"That's the thing; there is no real concern. The only reason they have a file in the first place is because they nearly started an in-city war by refusing a contract from the underground mob known as the Serpentine. I still don't know the details of what the contract entailed, but I do know that it involved hurting quite a lot of innocent people."

"Interesting..." She gazed off into the distance for a few minutes before coming to a decision. "Could I borrow those papers, Evanz?"

"Of course." He handed them to her with a curious look, as if slightly aware that she really had no idea who she had hired. She had known they were good people of course, but she wanted to know more about them and what they had done.

She wanted to know what she could expect them to achieve on this job she had hired them for.


End file.
